YEW FAMILY. 



61 



Family 2. TAXACEAE Lindl. Nat Syst Ed. 2, 316. 1836. 



Trees or shrubs, resin-bearing except Taxus. Leaves evergreen or 4ifH- 

 uous, linear, or in several exotic genera broad or sometimes fan-shape*! 

 pollen-sacs and ovules borne in separate clusters or solitary. Perianth wanting. 

 Stamens much as in the Pinaceae. Ovules with either one or two integuments; 

 when two, the outer one fleshy, when only one, its outer part fleshy. Fruit 

 drupe-like or rarely a cone. 



About 8 genera and 75 species, of wide geographic distribution, most numerou* in the TlHtta 

 hemisphere. The Maiden-hair Tree, Ginkgo biloba, of China and Ja; 

 is an interesting member of the group, now much planted for ornanu-nt 



x. TAXUS L. Sp. PI. 1040. i7.s.v 



Evergreen trees or shrubs, with spirally arranged short-pctioled linear flat mucrooatc 

 leaves, spreading so as to appear 2-ranked, and axillary and solitary, sessile or tubtCMile 

 very small ameuts; staminate anients consisting of a few scaly bracts and 5-8 stamen*, their 

 filaments united to the middle ; anthers 4-6-celled. Ovules solitary, axillary, erect, Mb- 

 tended by a fleshy, annular disk, which is bracted at the base. Fruit consisting of the fleshy 

 disk which becomes cup-shaped, red, and nearly encloses the bony seed. [Name an< 



About 6 species, natives of the north temperate zone. Besides the following, another occur* in 

 Florida, one in Mexico and one on the Pacific Coast. 



i. Taxus minor (Michx.) Britton. American Yew. 



(Fig. 135.) 



Taxus baccata var. minor Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 

 2: 245. 1803. 



Taxus Canadensis Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 856. 1806. 

 Taxus minor Britton, Mem. Torr. Club, 5: 19. 

 1893- 



A low straggling shrub, seldom over 5 

 high. Leaves dark green on both sides, nar- 

 rowly linear, mucronate at the apex, nar- 

 rowed at the base, 6 // -io // long, nearly i" 

 wide, persistent on the twigs in drying; the 

 staminate aments globose, i" long, usually 

 numerous; ovules usually few; fruit red and 

 pulpy, resinous, oblong, nearly 3" high, the 

 top of the seed not covered by the fleshy 

 integument. 



In woods. Newfoundland to Manitoba, south 

 to Xew Jersey, in the Alleghenies to Virginia, 

 and to Minnesota and Iowa. Ascends to 2500 

 ft. in the Adirondacks. April-May. Very dif- 

 ferent from the European Yew. T. baccata, in 

 habit, the latter becoming a large forest tree, as 

 does the Oregon Yew. T. brcri/olia. 



Ground Hemlock. 



Class 2. ANGIOSPERMAE. 



Ovules (macrosporanges) enclosed in a cavity (the ovary) fa* 

 infolding and uniting of the margins of a modified rudnnenta 

 or of several such leaves joined together, in which the seeds 

 pollen-grains (microspores) on alighting upon the summit ot t 

 germinate, sending out a pollen-tube which penetrates it 

 an ovule enters the orifice of the latter (micropyle), and its tip i 



